Special Issues

The Oscar Shorts are worth your time

Yay
Once again The Screen answers the question, “How the hell do I see the
shorts that are nominated for Academy Awards”? Starting Feb. 7, the
Oscar-nominated shorts in animation, live action and documentary wi...

‘The Callback Queen’ is so bad, it’s hard to believe

Barf
Here are some
things The Callback Queen thinks are funny: Gay sex; Irish-English
hatred as fuel for sex; eastern Europeans in general. And here are some things The
Callback Queen thinks it knows about: Hollywoo...

A kid looks for freedom with the ‘12 O’Clock Boys’

Ok
This documentary follows 13-year-old Pug and his fascination with the Baltimore dirt bike group the 12 O’Clock Boys (so named for the way a rider can make his bike almost vertical when performing wh

So much can happen on ‘Labor Day’

Barf
The story told in Labor Day, about Adele (Kate Winslet), a divorced and depressed mother to young teenager Henry (Gattlin Griffith), and their long holiday weekend with stranger Frank (Josh Brolin) is absu...

‘Here Comes the Devil.’ Better watch out!

Meh
We open with two women having sex. The doorbell rings and one woman leaves to see whom it is. A man attacks her and slicing off some of her fingers. Her lover grabs a lamp and knocks the guy over the

It’s a ‘Battle Royale.’ Get me a chicken burrito!

Ok
For all the praise it has received—and it’s worthy of that praise—there are things I’m hearing at the multiplex that needle me. No one is expecting audiences to enjoy it. And while movies are largely ab...

'The Selfish Giant' is too much of a good bad thing

Ok
In Oscar Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant” there’s a mean old giant who won’t let children play in his garden. Then—and this is all from long-dormant memory—a permanent winter settles in on his garden. ...